PREMIER League plumbers are earning &#xA3;1,000 a week but are in danger of undermining the long term prospects for the industry as a whole.

That's the view of Chester & District Housing Trust which is shelling out extra cash to hire skilled tradespeople like plumbers, plasterers, bricklayers and painters and decorators, who command high fees.

Plumbers in particular can charge an expensive hourly rate because there are not enough of them and they are in great demand due to the construction boom.

To boost its own supply of skilled labour, the housing trust is promoting an apprenticeship scheme aimed at local young people.

Dave Smith, policy and performance manager, said the current situation was similar to that in top flight football:' 'In the Premiership a few players are paid extremely well, while the clubs are struggling. If the clubs go broke then the wages will fall dramatically.

'The David Beckham plumber is doing well in the short to medium term but if he looks at the more long term he might think he's cutting his own throat if he puts his employer out of business and his wages end up cut in half.'

On taking over responsibility for Chester's former council housing stock, the housing trust committed itself to home improvements like installing central heating for tenants within three years and new bathrooms in more than 1,150 homes. Mr Smith said these promises would be met but it had cost more money than anticipated when the Trust was set up in 2000 and wages were lower.

He added: 'We have a preference for using local contractors who report that it's difficult to get skilled labour. There are a number of plumbing contractors that we use and we want to help more people, hopefully young people, to become NVQ qualified and to do qualified plumbing. It seems a lot of people are put off because it takes longer to learn.'

Mr Smith said the Trust hired some trades people directly as well as through contractors. Even though a self-employed plumber might earn more money he said there were wider benefits to being on staff, including career development, stringent health and safety and a pension scheme.

Kath Stephenson, a housing Trust board member, told a recent meeting at Chester Town Hall that there was 'a snobbery' around pursing a career in manual trades, compared with the attitude in Europe.

She said: 'We are losing sight of the fact that we will always have a construction industry and we need to have construction firms in this city able to do a good job, employing skilled men who will put money back into the local economy.'